FANNING SPRINGS · FLORIDA · NOVEMBER
The spring keeps its own temperature. On September 11, 2026, the USGS gauge in the vent at Fanning Springs read 73.4°F, and it reads close to that on any day you care to pick, in any month of the year. What moves in November is the air above it. NOAA’s 1991-2020 normals put the average afternoon at 74.4°F and the average night at 49.2°F, so at two o’clock the water and the air are within a degree of each other, and at dawn the water is more than twenty degrees warmer than the air you undress in.
The other November dividend is space. Florida counts 130 parking spaces at Fanning Springs State Park, and when they fill on a hot Saturday the gate closes behind them. In the fall you can roll in at ten and still park. For the cabins, the drive in and the rest of the Suwannee, our Fanning Springs guide handles everything the calendar doesn’t.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · FANNING SPRINGS
November gives you 74.4°F afternoons over 73.4°F water and a lot with room in it, in exchange for mornings near 49°F and two nights at or below freezing.
AIR 74.4°F / 49.2°F · WATER 73.4°F · 3.4 WET DAYS · 130 PARKING SPACES
Go for: a swim where the water and the afternoon air sit a degree apart, 715 feet of boardwalk down to the Suwannee, and a parking lot that isn’t fighting you.
Think twice before: tenting it. Two nights in an average November drop to 32°F or below, and the park holds only 5 cabins.
Air: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020, Cross City AP · Water: USGS gauge 02323502 · Facilities: Florida DEP 2024 inventory
On this page
- Fanning Springs weather in November74.4°F days, 2.10 inches, 3.4 wet days
- November lows and frost nights49.2°F mornings and two freezing nights
- Crowds and parking in November130 spaces, 5 cabins, no price data
- Things to do at the spring in NovemberThe swim area, the boardwalk, the launch
- A two-day plan for Fanning SpringsTwo days built around a 5:37 p.m. sunset
- November vs October and DecemberHow the three months compare, degree by degree
- Is November a good month to go?Our verdict for swimmers, paddlers and campers
Three things we could not verify, and we would rather say so than guess: an entrance fee, an opening hour, and a manatee count. The state parks site answers automated reads with a 403, and the wildlife agency’s manatee pages render in the browser, so we give no dollar figure and no animal count. Fees differ from park to park, so a price you read for another spring does not carry over here. Call the park before you drive, and skim the Florida basics if it’s your first state-park day.
Fanning Springs weather in November: average highs, lows and rain days
| November at Fanning Springs | The figure |
|---|---|
| Average high | 74.4°F |
| Average low | 49.2°F |
| Precipitation | 2.10 inches |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 3.4 |
| Days with 1 in or more | 0.4 |
| Nights at 32°F or below | 2.0 |
| Daylight on November 15 | 10 h 42 min · 6:55 a.m. to 5:37 p.m. |
| Spring water (gauge reading) | 73.4°F · 41 cubic feet per second |
Every air figure here comes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, the 1991-2020 monthly normals, and the thermometer behind them stands at Cross City airport, roughly 27 miles from the vent. November there averages a high of 74.4°F, a low of 49.2°F and 2.10 inches of rain. Those describe air and nothing else. The water figure has a different source and a different location: the USGS gauge sitting in the spring itself, station 02323502, which read 73.4°F on September 11, 2026. That reading is a single instant, not a monthly average, and a spring has no season to average over.
The 2.10 inches arrive in very few sittings. An average November records 0.10 inch or more on 3.4 days, so measurable rain turns up about one day in nine, and just 0.4 day reaches a full inch, which works out to a proper soaking roughly two Novembers in five. Getting rained on at a spring is a philosophical problem rather than a practical one. You are already wet, the water underneath you is the same 73.4°F it was an hour ago, and the boardwalk clears fast.
The gap between the 49.2°F night and the 74.4°F afternoon runs 25.2 degrees, wider than in either neighboring month. Pack for both ends of it rather than for the average: a fleece and long pants for an eight o’clock walk along the boardwalk, shorts by one in the afternoon, and a second towel plus a dry warm layer for the trip back from the water. Cold at a spring is never the swim. It is the five minutes after.
On November 15 the sun clears the trees at 6:55 a.m. and sets at 5:37 p.m. local time, giving 10 hours 42 minutes of daylight. Dinner happens in the dark. So does the drive out, if you linger. A four o’clock swim means climbing out into air that has already left its peak, with the light going within the hour, so aim the last dip at two or three and let the boardwalk have the late slot.
How warm is Fanning Springs in November?
Two numbers frame the month: 74.4°F by day, 49.2°F by night, 25.2 degrees apart. Set the water beside them and the shape of a November day becomes obvious. At the afternoon peak the air is one degree warmer than the 73.4°F in the vent, so stepping in barely registers as a change. At sunrise the same water sits 24 degrees above the air, warm enough that steam hangs over the surface while your fingers complain.
That translates directly into what you wear. Mornings want sleeves and closed shoes, afternoons want neither, and the swap happens somewhere around eleven. Swimmers who feel the cold should hold the water for the middle of the day and treat the boardwalk as the early activity. Anyone who runs warm will find November the easiest swimming of the fall, since the 73.4°F that feels brisk in August feels like nothing at all when the air has come down to meet it.
Frost is real here, in small quantities. NOAA counts 2.0 nights in an average November at 32°F or below at the Cross City station, and inland Florida cools off faster than the coast, so a campsite can sit colder than a forecast written for the region. Two freezing nights out of thirty is not a reason to skip the month. It is a reason to bring a sleeping bag rated for it, or to take one of the park’s 5 cabins and stop thinking about it.
How busy is Fanning Springs in November? Crowds, parking and prices
We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for this corner of the Suwannee, so we crown no month cheap and no month expensive. What can be counted is the lot. Florida’s 2024 facilities inventory gives Fanning Springs State Park 130 parking spaces, and that figure, not an opening hour, is what decides a hot Saturday: when the spaces are gone, the gate shuts. November takes the pressure off that number in the most direct way, by removing the 82.2°F afternoons that sent everyone looking for cold water in the first place.
Sleeping there is the tight part. The park holds 5 cabins, full stop, and we could not verify a reservation window, so we will not invent a number of weeks. Fix your dates, book the same day you fix them, and if the cabins are gone, work outward with our Florida lodging guide. A day trip needs no booking at all: you need a parking space, and in November you will get one.
On the tax question, we could not verify a local lodging-tax rate for the towns around the spring, so no percentage appears from us. Florida hotel bills usually carry a county tourist-development levy on top of state sales tax, and the rate is set county by county. Ask the property to quote you the all-in nightly figure rather than the headline rate, the same habit our cost guide recommends everywhere in the state.
There is one place where spending more genuinely changes November, and it is the roof over your head. A cabin turns those 2.0 freezing nights into a non-event and puts you 200 yards from a swim at 7 a.m. Everything else at the spring costs the same whether you arrive in a rented convertible or a borrowed pickup, and the water charges nobody extra for being 73.4°F.
Things to do in Fanning Springs in November
November lets you do the thing summer forbids, which is to show up late and take your time. With afternoons at 74.4°F instead of October’s 82.2°F, the walk from the car stops being a sprint between shade patches, the boardwalk is usable at noon, and the swim becomes a choice rather than a rescue. Paddlers get the better end of it too, since 10 hours 42 minutes of daylight is plenty for a river morning and still leaves the afternoon for the spring.
The state’s own inventory sets out what is there to use: 1 designated swimming area, 715 feet of boardwalk, 1 observation platform, 1 launch for canoes, kayaks and tubes, 5 cabins and those 130 parking spaces. That is a compact park, and the compactness is the pleasure of it. Swim, dry off, walk the boardwalk out to the Suwannee, climb the platform, come back for a second swim, all inside a couple of hours without moving the car.
What the month changes is the contrast, not the spring. The vent holds 73.4°F in February and 73.4°F in July. In August that water feels genuinely cold against 90-plus air. In November it feels neutral at two in the afternoon and positively kind at eight in the morning, when the air is down at 49.2°F and the pool is the warmest place in the park. Same water, completely different swim, and the difference is entirely in the thermometer above your head.
On what you get for nothing, we have to be careful. The gate price is something we could not read, so we quote none. Once you are inside, though, the swim area, the 715 feet of boardwalk, the observation platform and the launch ask no separate ticket and no timed slot. One footnote worth knowing: Florida law defines a protected class it calls Outstanding Florida Springs, covering every historic first-magnitude spring plus six named directly in statute 373.802(5). Our sources did not confirm whether Fanning Springs sits on that list, so we make no claim either way.
Fanning Springs in November: a two-day itinerary
Day one runs backwards from the light. Sunrise on November 15 is 6:55 a.m., so make 9 a.m. the arrival with a fleece on and coffee in hand, and walk the boardwalk first while the air is still in the fifties and the river is doing its steam trick. Late morning, take the platform and the run. Swim between one and three, when the air is at its 74.4°F peak and the water reads a degree cooler. Be out and dressed by four, because sunset is 5:37 p.m. and the temperature starts its 25-degree slide before the sun is anywhere near the trees.
Day two belongs to the launch: kayak, canoe or tube onto the Suwannee in the morning, back for a midday swim at the one designated area. If one of the month’s 3.4 wet days lands on you, the plan barely changes, since 0.10 inch is a shower and you were getting wet anyway. If it turns into the rarer inch-and-up day, drive. St. Augustine’s old town and the Gulf beaches are both reachable, and our getting-around guide has the drive times.
Fanning Springs in November vs October and December
| October | November | December | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 82.2°F | 74.4°F | 68.2°F |
| Average low | 59.9°F | 49.2°F | 44.4°F |
| Precipitation | 2.23 in | 2.10 in | 2.95 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 3.7 | 3.4 | 4.6 |
| Spring water | 73.4°F | 73.4°F | 73.4°F |
Read across and November lands in the middle by design: 7.8 degrees cooler by day than October, 6.2 warmer than December, with nights 10.7 below October and 4.8 above December. It is also the driest of the three on both counts, 2.10 inches against October’s 2.23 and December’s 2.95, and 3.4 wet days against 3.7 and 4.6. The bottom row never moves. All three months put you in the same 73.4°F water, so the whole comparison is a question about the air you stand in when you climb out.
Shift four weeks earlier and you buy warm evenings, 82.2°F afternoons and a river you can paddle in a t-shirt at seven in the morning, at the cost of heat, company and a lot that can fill. Shift four weeks later and you gain quiet and lose almost a full inch of rain’s worth of goodwill: December brings 2.95 inches over 4.6 wet days, 68.2°F afternoons, and a swim that means entering water five degrees warmer than the air and dreading the exit.
Is November a good time to visit Fanning Springs?
Yes, and it is close to the best version of this particular spring. Swimmers who hate waiting for a parking space, paddlers who want the Suwannee without August humidity, and photographers who like steam on the water at 7 a.m. all get exactly what they came for. It works less well for anyone whose idea of a spring day involves lying on a towel until sunset, and for families with small children who chill fast between dips, since the afternoon window is real but short.
If that describes your group, take October instead. The trade is 82.2°F afternoons and 59.9°F nights for 0.13 inch more rain and a busier lot, and the comparison runs in detail in our October guide. December is not the fallback here: 68.2°F days, 44.4°F nights and 4.6 wet days make the exit from the water the memorable part. For the wider state calendar, our best-time page sets Florida’s dry season against its wet one.
Of these three months, November is the only one where the afternoon air and the spring water sit within a single degree of each other while there is still room in a 130-space lot.
The last word
Settle the bed before you settle the date. Five cabins is the entire indoor inventory, two nights in an average November reach 32°F or below, and a tent turns a 49.2°F morning into a negotiation you will lose. Then bring a fleece for the boardwalk and stop worrying. That clarity you will be swimming through is a matter of volume: the USGS gauge measured 41 cubic feet per second leaving the vent, replaced faster than it can cloud, at 73.4°F on a November Tuesday exactly as on an August one. Call the park for the gate price before you drive, since we could not read one.
Sources & data for this guide
- November air normals (74.4°F / 49.2°F, 2.10 in), rain days and freezing nights · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012833, Cross City AP, FL, about 27 miles from the spring · checked Sep 24, 2026
- October and December normals used in the comparison · same NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 series and station · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Daylight, sunrise 6:55 a.m. and sunset 5:37 p.m. on November 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted from UTC to local time · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Water temperature 73.4°F and discharge 41 cubic feet per second · USGS National Water Information System, station 02323502 Fanning Springs, instantaneous reading, not a monthly average · checked Sep 24, 2026
- 130 parking spaces, 1 swimming area, 715 feet of boardwalk, 5 cabins, 1 launch, 1 observation platform · Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Recreational Facilities Inventory, 2024 annual report · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Outstanding Florida Springs definition · Florida Statutes 373.802(5) · checked Sep 24, 2026
- What we could not verify: entrance fee, opening hours, manatee numbers and the local lodging-tax rate. floridastateparks.org returns 403 to automated reads and the state’s manatee pages render client-side, so we quote no price and no animal count · Sep 11, 2026